Snapchat policy changes: do they have control over your photos and videos now?

One of the advantages of Snapchat over other messaging apps is that your posts are automatically deleted. At least that is the theory, but the new privacy policy says just the opposite: they can now reproduce, modify, and republish any of your content… Should we be panicking?

Well, if you’re worried about privacy and security, yes!

The Snapchat app has radically changed its terms of service and, depending on how you read the text, they can now do whatever they want with your content. And, in theory, that is something that doesn’t even happen on Facebook.

The privacy policies are much longer, but here is one of its most controversial sections:

“…you grant Snapchat a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, create derivative works from, publicly perform, broadcast, distribute, syndicate, promote, exhibit, and publicly display that content in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods…”.

A bit much, right? Especially taking into account the right to privacy on the Internet, and the fact that the majority of Snapchat’s users are teenagers.

Snapchat responds and… are you reassured?

Fortunately, the story does not end here and Snapchat has been quick to respond given the uproar caused by the new legal text. So, it has released another document explaining that these policies have been misinterpreted and don’t differ much from those of other services such as Facebook.

In fact, they insist that anything you send to your friends will be private and that what you post will be deleted from their servers, once viewed. We want to believe them but… was a text that gives rise to so many misunderstandings even necessary?

Do you use Snapchat? And more importantly, will you continue to use it? Let us know in the comments.

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